^^^ GT5 Used Car Cycle [A work in progress] ^^^

So I've completed the beta version for my excel program to generate a custom list for any user. The hang up I'm having right now is I'm only 80 days into my game so the list isn't very useful yet (it is believed that the cycle may be over 1000 days long). If anyone wants to know the current theories on the car cycle I would be glad to share more.

I'm going to try hosting it as a download from google docs so that I can update the version without the link changing.
Link to File

A couple of notes about the file. In order to make the custom list work I had to use a macro which I know some people aren't comfortable with. If you aren't that won't offend me and I suppose could also host a macro free version that only contained my cycle in it if someone wanted it.

Basically to use the sheet go to the data entry page and fill in the blanks using the drop down lists. Once you click the button if a match exists in my list the Custom list tab will contain what I know of the cycle adjusted to match your current day and any offset in the hextets (each group of 6 cars) that you might have from mine.

The list is arranged so that the cars at the top of the list match the bottom of the used car screen in GT5. This is a result of the new arrival cars filling in the top of the list. I still think this will prove useful as I get more of the list completed. For example, if you have a list generated starting at day 1 and are currently on day 13 then the cars in your used car lot would be from days 9-13 in my list. Sorry this is so confusing but PD sure didn't make it as easy as GT4.

As I said this is a beta so if you find a problem (and I'm not a very proficient programmer so there are bound to be some) let me know and I'll see what I can do.

There isn't any way that you can find out what game day you are in the game. A game day passes every time you see the loading bar screen (loading a race or a license test).

This much is certain for the used car lot
--Each "day" that you progress in the game 6 new cars appear at the top
of the used car lot and the last 6 (the ones at the bottom) are removed.
--Several users (from different regions) have found a matching pattern among their lists that once matched can be used to predict the future of the used car lot.

The next statements are my opinions and may be proven wrong
--There is a master list for the used car lot that is the same for all users BUT the starting point in the list is random (or assigned in a way I don't know).
--The list will cycle back to the beginning at some point (just like GT4).
--If the master list is completed and you can find the point in the list that your game is currently then a list that matches your game can be generated.

What would be helpful is if the file actually opened up for me...did you use a certain version of Excel (2003, 2007, 2010)...this did open, but with a bunch of gobbledygook -- so I am figuring that you may have used some artwork maybe, or maybe some kind of formatting that doesn't show in Excel 2003...

Would like to see this as I am actually interested in what you've come up with so far

yeah sorry it isn't more useful yet. I'm hoping to put in some time tonight and grind through several more weeks. My concern is how long the total cycle really is. I'm not sure I want to know how far from the end I am

etnl posted: ugh, I remember helping you with GT4 used cars, that was a lot of work

I might help a little if the lot is the same for all regions (I'm no longer in the US). [hr][/blockquote] As far as can tell the lot looks to be the same for all regions. What region are you in now? To be honest I think the most important thing to get filled in at this point is just what car appears when and not so much the price and mileage (which don't appear to vary all that much).

[quote=pacman32nj]EDIT: Pattern not found[/quote]

Yeah I put that into the code so the program had a way to exit without crashing. I'm sure I just don't have the list filled in where you are at right now.

etnl posted: ugh, I remember helping you with GT4 used cars, that was a lot of work

I might help a little if the lot is the same for all regions (I'm no longer in the US). [hr][/blockquote] As far as can tell the lot looks to be the same for all regions. What region are you in now? To be honest I think the most important thing to get filled in at this point is just what car appears when and not so much the price and mileage (which don't appear to vary all that much). [/quote]

I'm in Europe now (went back to Poland few years back), as for mileage, since engine can be rebuilt it shouldn't matter now.

If you do start recording the car+day info it will only be useful to me if the car order is recorded the same way that I do. My method is a bit awkward but it works well for the data base.

If you progress one day in the game and look at your lot the top six cars say "just arrived" if you've progressed 2 days without going to the car lot then the top 12 cars say this with the first six cars arriving on the current game day and the next six cars down arriving on the previous day.

This is the order of each of the six cars per day if you have the used car lot open
5---6
3---4
1---2
If that doesn't make sense let me know and I'll try to come up with a better explanation.

I just remembered something, though I can't confirm it, but I remember seeing a Formula GT in there very early in the game. It might even have been on day 1. Not that it's important though, because nobody'll have the money to buy it on day 1.

You might already have that in the file, but I can't look at it right now.

I saw an F GT at around day 250, don't know what day I'm up to but last time I checked I was up to ~225 when I was starting the Extreme hall. If I recall correctly it was valued just under 3.5M, I'm about 600K from that now and am eager to get the F GT championship in B-spec done to see what prize I get (I don't believe it's known yet).

Dude, i like what your doing but I think I can help solve this puzzle. First, I think its a totally valid assumption to think they are using a master list. We do this in my line of work doing economic simulation all the time. The master list was probably created by a random car generator and is probably a long list of cars.

Since we know everyone is using the same list for their used car lot, we can use that to exploit the list. I am assuming the only difference between users is where you start on the list (then it progresses linearly through the list). So all we need to do is host a folder dropbox of some kind where individuals can put in a text file that contains their current used car lot list (properly formatted for parsing). Or it can be 1 excel document called master used car list that people open then add their current used car list then save back to the server.

Once we have 6 day worth of cars (that would be the current view of the used car lot) from hopefully 1000+ people then we use programing to put the list together (based on your current list of 178 days). This assumes that no 1 day worth of cars has the same 6 cars (might be a weak assumption). The other assumption is that we have over 1000 entries before we run the program. The program will look at each entry looking for matches. Once it finds a match b/t entryies it takes them together in the correct order of the match (a match would be a 1 day 6 car match). Once you have tons of matches then you match those against each other and glue together appropriately. Then Once long enough we should complete the list.

The best part about this plan is that users dont have to do much. 1 user only has to submit their current view of the used car lot which is 6 days worth of cars. So if 1000 users input their 6 days worth we should be able to compile this thing quickly.

Another thing we can do is put a combo box in your excel sheet so users can type in the car they see to add to the master list.

I'm coming late to the party. I've been posting my work on GTPlanet. It appears you've got all the used car prices. I just need to transfer them to my spreadsheet and I'll be done.

Thanks for your work.

Update: OK, the way your info was laid out was a bit confusing, as to the number of cars. With the multiple listings the count is obviously inflated. Anyway, I got 48 prices off your list leaving me with just 72 more to get. I'm actually suspicious of some of the cars in Sony's list. Have you ever seen one of the RM models? I assume that stands for race modified but I've yet to see one in the used car lot. They're listed as premium so perhaps they show up in the dealerships after we level up or something. Just strange.

I'm actually suspicious of some of the cars in Sony's list. Have you ever seen one of the RM models? I assume that stands for race modified but I've yet to see one in the used car lot. They're listed as premium so perhaps they show up in the dealerships after we level up or something. Just strange.

Click to expand...

My assumption is they only listed them in the car list to show that those are the cars in the game you can do Racing Mods to, rather than being actual car you can buy straight up in the game.

I am working on a proof of concept program for the methodology I previously mentioned above. Should be available soon.

thanks,

numberlpete

Click to expand...

I've been doing something similar with several users from GTPlanet who have their own lists (I might post what I have when I get it cleaned up). I don't have time right now to manage and coordinate your idea but if you want to get it going I would be happy to contribute what I have.

I've also updated my list to have 216 days worth. In the interest of time I've stopped recording the prices and mileages of the cars as they don't vary much.

I'm not sure I understand your comment with the multiple listings. Of course there are multiple listings as each car appears multiple times throughout the cycle.

The layout was the best I could do at this point but suggestions are always welcome.

Click to expand...

My apologies. I did not mean to suggest there was anything wrong with your layout. I just didn't understand it at first glance. My spreadsheet only has one listing of each car. I accept that prices vary slightly on the used car lot but only want the figures as a guide. The slight variations in price are not important to me so I just list one per car.

I finally realized the issue with RM cars and deleted those 17 from my list, choosing to note the standard models are modifiable with an "RM" notation at the end of the name. I consider that more useful than listing the car twice as Sony did.

Only 45 more used car prices to get and I'm done. Woohoo!!!

BTW, my spreadsheet is available at http:\\www.bates.edu\~gdudley\GT5CarList.xlsx
If you have trouble downloading, e-mail me at gdudley@bates.edu and I'll send you a copy.

Just for the fun of it, I created a car database with all the cars that you can get in GT5. It's with complete stats on each car and some of them have pictures.

I've read through this thread, and I can see that you've done a great deal of work. Very impressive!
You say that you're not so hardcore at programming; I would be happy to do a web app and host it, if you'd like. Perhaps we can find out something?

(I've just joined the message boards so can't PM you. But if you PM me with an e-mail address, we can find out something, if you're game!)

For anyone who is interested I've put together a compiled list of several people who have been recording their used car lots. It is no where near a complete list but if you find your pattern in it then it could be helpful in looking for a particular car.

i have to be honest with you, i looked up some cars i had on my car lot, i had a tommy kaira, a pontiac tempest le mans gto, and a toyota gt-1 race car, within 2 days(set of 12 cars) i tried checking your lists and those 3 the tommy comes up like 6 times, the pontiac once and the toyota once, the toyota is like 150 days, the pontiac was like less than 100, and the tommy's were all peppered through, none of them even close to each other, i can tell you this though, they do have patterns together, certain cars do pair together, but its not as if any others do, so i think honestly, they have it as a random for everybody, although they do have same regular occurrences, so ill keep up with it with ya, but i dont see it happening

Jeff_is_2Xtreme posted: [link=http://boards.ign.com/gran_turismo/b5208/83622941/p1/?66]COMPLETE Used Car Cycle (NTSC/NA)[/link] [hr][/blockquote]
Boy that brings back memories. And I thought that list took awhile to put together.